Guaraní Transformation
Emmanuel Fretes Roy, 2021
99×77 cm, canvas, oil
Asunción, Paraguay
99×77 cm, canvas, oil
Asunción, Paraguay
How does the traveller see it?
(Fragment of a post from a Facebook page)
Where's the money, Chief?
The moment I saw it, I knew: it was mine. It's both fine art and a story at the same time.
The title of the painting is Transmutación Guaraní ("Guaraní Transformation"). As they explained at the gallery, the Guaraní are the Indigenous people of Paraguay, and their way of life is changing. Both the woman's COVID face mask as she weaves a basket and the empty plastic bottle in the lower left corner of the painting point to that.
It sounds plausible, but it's not very convincing! I'll buy it if I can get in touch with the artist. We made a deal, especially since Google informed me that Emmanuel Fretes Roy is a well-known artist in Asunción.
WhatsApp helped us establish contact, and Facebook made us friends. Here's the story from the artist himself.
This Guaraní girl came to the capital, Asunción, to protest during the COVID pandemic in 2021. The government allocated money to the Indigenous communities, but the caciques (tribal chiefs) stole it, and none of it reached ordinary people. Just another classic African-style story of aid being siphoned off. If those in need receive 30%, that's considered normal by the standards of UN-related corruption. During the famine in Ethiopia, that figure was only 5%.
The artist also told me that he had seen this young woman picking lice from her friend's hair, but he hasn't finished that painting yet.
What a pity! It would have been a perfect addition to my paintings of Nepalese lice-pickers, which are already part of my collection and are also featured in this gallery.
The moment I saw it, I knew: it was mine. It's both fine art and a story at the same time.
The title of the painting is Transmutación Guaraní ("Guaraní Transformation"). As they explained at the gallery, the Guaraní are the Indigenous people of Paraguay, and their way of life is changing. Both the woman's COVID face mask as she weaves a basket and the empty plastic bottle in the lower left corner of the painting point to that.
It sounds plausible, but it's not very convincing! I'll buy it if I can get in touch with the artist. We made a deal, especially since Google informed me that Emmanuel Fretes Roy is a well-known artist in Asunción.
WhatsApp helped us establish contact, and Facebook made us friends. Here's the story from the artist himself.
This Guaraní girl came to the capital, Asunción, to protest during the COVID pandemic in 2021. The government allocated money to the Indigenous communities, but the caciques (tribal chiefs) stole it, and none of it reached ordinary people. Just another classic African-style story of aid being siphoned off. If those in need receive 30%, that's considered normal by the standards of UN-related corruption. During the famine in Ethiopia, that figure was only 5%.
The artist also told me that he had seen this young woman picking lice from her friend's hair, but he hasn't finished that painting yet.
What a pity! It would have been a perfect addition to my paintings of Nepalese lice-pickers, which are already part of my collection and are also featured in this gallery.
And what do you think?